02 Jul 2009 |
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| My FMC OWERRI EXPERIENCE
Adepoju Paul Olusegun
A lot has been said by all and sundry about the failing state of the Nigerian nation. Everyday in the dailies, on the internet and at the various news stands, one comes across angry citizens who are daily calling for the heads of the leaders at various levels of government. I’ve also noted this status in times past but never believed I could fall a victim, all that got shattered when I tried to access the federal public health facility in Owerri which like other aspects of the nation, is in a pretty bad shape. February 14 of each year is known all over the world as the day set aside to celebrate love in what is known as St. Valentine’s Day. While some spend the day offering meticulous services to those in need, majority get deeply engrossed in satisfying their orgies. It’s a day of maximum activity for all, especially the young generation and certainly not a day to fall sick. The last celebration was quite unique for me as I got sick. I was down with tonsillitis, a mild inflammation of the tonsils that makes talking and swallowing extremely painful. For somebody like me that can’t keep the mouth shut, that’s like hell. I tried all I could. Medications, counsels, advices and prayers but all to know avail so I had to resolve to get professional help. Where do you expect to get the best treatment if not a federal medical facility? so I went to the nearest federal medical facility in Owerri for professional advise. I got to the center at 8’O clock in the morning and was amazed at the numerous numbers of prospective patients waiting to get treated. As shown in one of the pictures, the line looked endless and I had to ask myself whether God was using sicknesses to put us in check, especially during the usually notorious season of love when all caution is thrown into the thin air. Because of the difficulties I had in talking, I went with a friend who I informed about my predicament and who later became my mouthpiece and the devil’s advocate. He advised me to come early the following day an idea that didn’t go down well with me so I tried to figure out a way to get by. While cracking my head, something quite unusual when compared with the foreign movie depictions of foreign medical facilities occurred. A Toyota Jeep sped to the emergency section and a hefty looking man in his early forties hopped down and sought for medical assistance to help get an injured relative into the clinic for urgent medical attention. The attending staffs did not give the man the much needed urgent audience but when they finally did, they embarked on an ultimate search for stretcher with which to help the injured into the clinic. By the time they were ready (after about 30 minutes), the injured had already given up the ghost. Whether he had died before arrival, on arrival or as a result of the lag in the response of medical officials isn’t an easy job deciphering and such pursuit is only a futile effort that can not bring back to life the dead. As it happens in the hospital, so also it does in several other hospitals including our most taunted 5-star standard hospitals. In all these federal health centers and the local ones, responsiveness to patients in emergencies is quite disheartening. Many almost dead patients, who would have been saved, as a result of these nonchalant attitudes to life and death situations, lost their lives daily in various hospitals spread across the country. The story of the dead man made me embark on an evaluation tour round the hospital premises before presenting myself for treatment. All around the hospital are signs of the Nigerian factor of decadence. Right in the emergency driveway is a massive stagnant body of water that serve as potential sources of hospital-acquired infections that may be very deadly especially for a patient whose immune system has been compromised by a prevailing health condition. When the government talks about malaria control, it’s evident that they fail to realize that they are also spreading malaria to innocent unsuspecting members of the public via its numerous health institutions with such poor drainage systems. I also wandered into the emergency ward itself. In the ward, needles were flying everywhere and without much caution. The room was jam-packed with lots of people seeking medical attention and the entropy level was high that it was very tasking getting a walking and breathing space. The hospital staff also did not help matters as they went about their duties with reckless abandon not minding the possibility of a patient with high contagious infection walking in and spreading the disease to all. Nigerian hospitals are extensively like this. Most lack working measures to prevent outbreaks and disease spread, called nosocomial infections in the medical profession, among patients which is a necessity for any nation that takes the lives of the citizens serious. Thank God the swine flu epidemic has not reached Nigeria. Our unpreparedness would cause an unimaginably high loss of human lives. All over the world, Nigerian doctors and other medical professionals are making meaningful contributions to the health systems of their host countries. They are involved in the research into new medical techniques and modification of relevant old ones to meet the current challenges facing the present age. This makes the problem of our hospitals less of lack of man power but more of an anemia of qualitative administration. Medical administration is expected to put together standard operating procedures on the handling of emergency cases to ensure that medicine and hospitals remain life-saving and not a place of death. It is not difficult putting such together but the main challenge is adhering to them. Challenges facing adherence to qualitative practice in Nigeria is quite enormous. Imagine yourself being in the shoes of the several medical officials- doctors, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, physiotherapists, radiographers etc. How will you perform efficiently when you are thinking of the voucher that is being delayed, the VAT that has just been increased, fuel shortage, PHCN and the likes? It is an extremely difficult and almost impossible task. Like other Nigerians, they are faced with the great challenge of living in a ailing nation whose leaders are not in tandem with the citizens and who are daily running out of ideas as to how to resolve the nation’s problems. They are also nudging grudges against one another. It is in Nigeria that doctors and medical laboratory scientists don’t see eye-to-eye. Other professionals too are murmuring. The pharmacists and physiotherapists also complain daily of the encroachment of the doctors into their terrain. These are acrimonies that spell doom on the health sector but it is evident that the current administration, as usual, is inert on this. Job dissatisfaction is also an issue. It is a common practice nowadays in most Nigerian medical facilities for medical officials to be discussing options right at the place of work. You see them filling forms and at the cybercafé booking for visa and flights. Commitment is a yardstick to success but as far as these greener pasture seekers are concerned, Nigerian hospitals don’t deserve their commitment and to some extent, they are right. Nigeria once boasted of the third best hospital in the world (UCH Ibadan) in terms of manpower and facilities but as it seems today, that is no longer true. Between then and now, many things have gone wrong. Visions have been blurred, dreams shattered and several expectations unmet. The health sector is in a pretty bad shape that calls for a state of emergency. The health of the citizens is not negotiable to any government, it isn’t a political issue and certainly not such that should also go the way of PHCN and NITEL. Nigerians daily groan under the heavy impact of the mistakes, wrong actions and inactions of our leaders. We daily condemn them in harsh tones although their ears seem deafened by the largess of governance. All these can be forgiven and forgotten when they realize their mistakes and bounce back to action. But some issues can neither be forgiven nor forgotten. How do you want a 5-year old child who lost his mother as a result of slow intervention of medical officials while delivering to forgive? How do you expect baby Wemimo who became infected with HIV as a resulting of poorly matched blood transfusion or the young girl that lost her right hand due to negligence and the likes on the side of the medical gurus to forget the irreparable loss? It’s impossible. On a daily basis, due to the insensitivity of our leaders, Nigeria is getting itself into the bad books of the future generations who are developing grudges as a result of several irreparable damages inflicted on them by the gross inefficiencies of the health system and that calls for a plea. An appeal to the health professionals to be diligent in their actions, to policy administrators and formulators to be fair to all professionals and to the government to awake from its slumber and stop being in the bad books of the leaders of tomorrow who are not yet infected with the bad blood. About my tonsillitis, I couldn’t imagine myself coming to the clinic with tonsillitis and leaving something greater so I detoured and on my way, I logged on to the internet via MTN GPRS and visited mayoclinic.com on my mobile phone. I got a provisional diagnosis and treatment option which entailed salt water gaggling. I tried this severally, prayed fervently and tried painstakingly to talk which finally yielded results. I got healed. Although rejuvenation of the health sector is not part of the 7-point agenda, introducing it and enforcing it at all levels is not a bad idea either.
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